After three years and some, He had completed his task. He knew this Class of
off springs from the Tribe of Shabazz would produce a progeny of descendants who
would love Islam and follow the teachings of the Prophets. So Allah chose one
from among many who believed and listen to Him, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
to be the Messenger of the time for his people. This is what “FOUNDER’S DAY”
represents, the coming of Allah, (God) Master Fard Muhammad, to who Praises are
due forever, in Person to teach us the right way.

This is why Master Fard Muhammad (God), whom all Praise is due, came to Black
Bottom Detroit: “to raise up men and women”, who had the fortitude,
to build a new paradigm for civilization. The Nation of Islam, which has done
just as The Holy Prophet said would do “rise in the west”. It would be the
pattern, the original, the model for the new paradigm.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

On July 1^st the Ministry of Agriculture sponsored its annual mini-conference at
Muhammad Farms. Representatives were present from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and
North Carolina. After a morning of picking vegetables and watermelons on the farm, the group set
down to a meal prepared by Sister Anne Muhammad using squash, sweet corn and cold sweet watermelon.
The Farm Marketing Coordinators/Ministers of Agriculture presented Dr. Ridgely with a navigational
devise to help him find his way as he delivers produce to the various cities.

After the meal we sat down for a conversation on the progress and future of the ministry and our
food buying clubs. The group’s major concern was how to keep members in their buying clubs. Most
of the buying clubs dropped back from weekly to bi-weekly purchase and deliveries because
participants could not adequately utilize the fresh fruits and vegetables that came in their boxes
in one week. It seems that fresh fruits and vegetables have a hard time competing against either
eating out at restaurants or pre-packaged processed foods from the grocery stores. Getting Black
people back in the kitchen to prepare and cook their own food is still problematic even after movies
like "Super Size Me" and books like "Fast Food Nation" have pointed out the
perils of putting your stomach in the "massa’s" kitchen.

In particular it would seem that those of us who claim to follow the teachings of the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad would be the first to buy into the idea of cooking our own food. Although there
might still be those who argue against the theology presented by him in "Message to the Black
Man" or the history of "Mr. Yakub", the scientists and doctors of the western world
are bearing witness everyday to the dietary plan presented by Mr. Muhammad in "How to Eat to
Live".

So what is the problem? After "How to Eat to Live" ignorance of what you should eat and
not eat is not an excuse. After Katrina, believing in and depending on America to accept Blacks into
the "American Way" and treating them like wanted citizens has been exposed to be a shallow
dream not based on reality. So why do we persist in trying to live the "American Dream"
with no means to participate accept to cut up one another or cut out essential personal and family
life functions like cooking?

It is interesting to observe how white women are taking up cooking and home making, while black
women are searching for a "career" or being "discovered". Why are there no black
"Martha Stewarts"?

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has declared that Black people in America have made a
"covenant with death." He states, "We have already made an agreement with hell and
that is why hell is in our lives. We have made an agreement with death and that is why death is in
our communities."

It is my responsibility as the Minster of Agriculture to carry out the goals of our Mission
Statement. Our major goal is "to develop a sustainable agricultural system that would
provide at least one meal per day, according to the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad
for the 40 million black people in America." To do this requires that we produce
then distribute food. However, if our potential customers prefer the artificial man-made food given
to them by their open enemy instead of fresh wholesome food provided by our system, then we have a
problem. The Ministry of Agriculture has three choices. We can produce raw products and attempt to
sell them to the "system" so that they can turn them into the poisons that our people
enjoy. Or we can set up the processing plants to make the poisonous but convenient foods that they
are used to. Or we can try and change their "culture of death" and break their
"covenant with death" so that we can service them from what we would prefer to produce,
good wholesome fresh food.

In the Ministry of Agriculture we promote the utilization of modern home appliances and kitchen
aids to make the cooking process easier and more efficient. This is why we are promoting and
marketing bread machines, so that our customers can make the best use of our 100% whole wheat flour
from Muhammad Farms. We are researching other items which we can make available to our customers to
make their cooking experience a more enjoyable one. My helper and wife, Sister Anne would also like
to encourage sisters to start cooking clubs, where groups come together to prepare food for freezing
and canning along with cooking days worth of meals at one setting for them and their families.

So how does one begin to break the gravitational pull of this "culture of death" which
uses all means of education, communications, advertisements and distractions to keep Black people
and the world on the fast track to hell? I have noticed that when Minister Farrakhan enters a room
or comes before an audience, he brings life and a love of life. The people in his presence light up
and for a moment seem to want to live. But evidently the light that Minister Farrakhan shares with
us soon fades in most of us once he leaves.

I personally believe that Minister Farrakhan is teachings us what he believes and it is that
belief which sustains his life and produces the extra "life force" that we can feel while
in his presence. So since he teaches us in a very clear manner what he believes, then what is the
impediment to our belief? I try to put myself in the mind-set of both a believer and a disbeliever.
I try to put myself in the shoes of the disbeliever and the weak believer so that I can understand
the blockage.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote on the back of the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper and Minister
Farrakhan still presents this on the inside back of the Final Call that, "WE BELIEVE that the
offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by those who are trying to deceive the black
peoples into believing that their 400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice and equality are,
all of a sudden, their ‘friends’." After Katrina, how could one be fooled today? Personally
I continue to do a lot of studying which proves to me that what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught
and now Minister Louis Farrakhan is teaching is 100 per cent correct. However, I have noticed that
many Black people don’t even want to know the truth, if that truth is not going to get them a job
with white folk or make them more acceptable to white folk.

I never really understood this type of sick love for white folk until I got a dog. My dog would
fight any perceived enemy to myself and would jump up and down with joy just to see me walk into the
backyard. All I had to do was rub his head and feed him his one meal and he was happy. Of course I
kept my dog in a fence and did not let anybody else feed my dog. The fence for Black people is the
educational system, religious system, t.v. programming, movies, sports and entertainment. These
systems keep the people looking outside of themselves for happiness and acceptance. The people live
in a type of "virtual reality" or vicarious living. In America life is about living the
life style of the rich and famous. This type of selfish lifestyle is neither African nor Islamic and
only possible as long as something or someone or both are being exploited.

I have a "dream" too. I still have dreams about this girl I was infatuated with when I
was in Junior High. I wonder where she is now, and if I finally have "what it takes" to
attract her to me so that "I can live happily ever after"? Oh, let me wake up and live. I
have a mission to fulfill of service to my people and my God. What about you? Oh, I see. You are
waiting for somebody to serve YOU. Or maybe you are still waiting on someone to bring you that pot
of gold that the slave trader used to trick you onto those ships headed west.

Then again maybe you really believe that dying and going to "heaven" is the only way to
get "streets of gold", peace and happiness. We feel sorry for you, but we in the Ministry
of Agriculture will continue to build the infrastructure for good food and happiness down here on
God’s earth in case you decide to wake up and break your covenant with death.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

While Black people in America are still debating whether the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was
correct when he predicted the fall of America’s economic system in his 1973 book called the
"Fall of America", so-called white people are busy preparing for such a dreadful day.
While Black people are running hand over feet to get further in debt to live the lifestyle of their
former slave master’s children, white people are simplifying their lives and moving back to the
countryside.

While Black people are busy trying to learn the latest dance and get the latest designer clothes,
white people are learning how to grow their own food in their backyards. While Black people are
spending thousands of dollars on rims for their fancy cars to ride around four square blocks in the
crowded ghettoes of our big cities, white people are learning to drive little tractors to take care
of their vegetable garden.

While Black people are reading music magazines and sports magazines, white people are reading
"Better Homes and Gardens" and "Mother Earth News". According to an article
called "Join the Real Food Revival" in Mother Earth News the US Department of Agriculture
reported that the number of farmers’ markets has increased by more than 80% from 1994 to 2004.
However, from my experience most of the people who shop at these markets are upper class whites, not
the poor whites or Blacks in general except for a few older Blacks who remember what "real
food" tastes like.

I have noticed how tractor dealerships have fewer large farming tractors and more small garden
tractors. I have noticed that around our 1600 acre farm in Southwest Georgia, large farms are being
sold at auction and cut up by real estate developers into 5 and 10 acre tracts. These tracts of land
are being bought up by people who are moving out of the metropolitan areas as though they are
suspecting some type of trouble in those areas. I know of some of these white people building
storage facilities underground for food and water as if they suspect something may be "going
down" in our big cities of America.

I have noticed that almost every city in America now has a four to eight lane military highway
(Interstate highway) looping around the inner city where Black people reside. I have noticed that
most all of the warehouses for food and other necessities are located on the outer rim of such
"loops" and surveillance cameras are placed over these routes supposedly for
"national security" or traffic control. I have noticed that mileage markers in some major
cities indicate the tenth of a mile, not just a mile. Why? Could it be for a grid map location
finder for future military operations in our inner cities?

While Black folks are still "super sizing" it at the fast food restaurants, middle
class whites are taking cooking lessons and going back to eating at home with their families. While
Black women are giving their newborns artificial milk, white mothers are going back to nursing their
babies.

There is a growing market for single home solar energy and wind energy units, while America’s
power grid is being sold at auction to foreign investors. According to a September 7, 2000 article
called "British Power Firm’s Takeover of Niagara Mohawk May Lower Bills in New York"
(http://archive.pulp.tc/html/pma_report.html), the British based National Grid Group bought Niagara
Mohawk. The purchase would extend the London-based company’s U.S. electricity business from New
England to New York and allow it to nearly double its customer base by bringing in 1.5 million
Niagara Mohawk consumers. It would make National Grid the nation’s ninth-largest electric utility.

In the 1980s when I was a professor of Agricultural economics at Black university, I did a number
of research papers on the need for America to rethink the method by which she produced and
distributed her food. This research included an analysis which showed that once you factor in the
non-renewable fossil fuel energy used to produce and transport the food, agriculture was a net
consumer of energy instead of a net producer of energy as designed by our ancestors in Africa. In
Africa we invented the method of growing our food and livestock close to our villages so that we
would not have to travel long distance to hunt and gather. This method of production greatly reduced
the risk of our food supply and allowed us to concentrate on developing and spreading civilization.

However, now we live on top of each other in mega-cities with no direct access to the land or our
food supply. We ship this food for thousands of miles and it sits in warehouses, trucks or stores
for a number of days before we get it. Yet we expect to eat healthy living food. We have been given
a false sense of safety and security by an artificial system an "oil crisis" away from
total collapse. If the flow of oil stops, the trucks stop, the tractors stop and you can’t even
drive to shop.

Back in the 1980’s I proposed a new paradigm of "community supported agriculture" and
"sustainable agriculture". Later I was shocked to see a piece of legislation related to
new agricultural initiatives for the U.S. Department of Agriculture which included these new
paradigms. Now white people have taken "community based agriculture" and
"self-sufficient communities" to a whole new level. They are preparing to survive the fall
of America’s economy and infrastructure.

The white man’s system is falling apart because he can no longer exploit the rest of the world
for oil and useful land as he has done in the past. The lessons of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
teach us that although the white man is only one eleventh of the population he utilizes almost one
fourth of the useful land. Europe has three times more people per square mile than does Africa.
African are starving because their useful land is controlled by the white man. However, as Africa
wakes up and kicks them out, the white race will be confined to what they can produce. The wise ones
know that they must move into a survival mode instead of an expansive, consumer oriented mode.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad warned us that one day the factories would be closing down. That
day has arrived. General Motors moving plants to China. The whole textile industry closing down in
America and opening in China. The high tech computer industry packing up and moving to India and
China. White folk, seeing the hand writing on the wall, are packing up and setting up communities
out in the wilderness where each family is responsible for specializing in a needed product or
trade. In other words, white people are setting up African style villages, while Blacks in America
and Africa are still flocking to the cities looking for more gold for their labor than they were
receiving in their own villages and neighborhoods.

Suckers are born everyday and die as well. White folk are deploying an old Scythian war tactic
where they get their enemies to chase them into a desolate area, then turn around on them and kill
them while they are weak. Black people in the Southern United States had over 15 million acres of
land which they had purchased 45 years up from slavery. Now we have less than 3 million acres and
don’t even want to keep that.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad left a blueprint for economic development in Message to the Black
Man. When will we dust off this great book, eat the wisdom and act as if we had received the truth
that would make us free in deed? The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan used that wisdom and
re-instituted the Three Year Economic Savings Program. We now have a 1556 acre farm in Georgia to
begin the process of economic development. All things start with the land. However, capital is
needed to work the land and process the raw products of the land so that we can service our people
in a manner in which they are used to, until they wake up and come home.

It was the "African Village" lifestyle which kept civilization and life going on this
planet for millions upon millions of years. We need trucks, processing plants and storage facilities
to reach our people locked in the mega-centers of death until we can wake them up and lead them to
the promised land of self-sufficiency and food security, before the complete "Fall of
America".

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us that most powerful force in the world is an idea in
the mind of a Black Man. The right idea can move us to economic development and unity while a lie
about self can cripple any chances for group cohesion.

"It is knowledge of self that the so-called Negroes lack which keeps them from enjoying
freedom, justice and equality…We, the tribe of Shabazz, says Allah (God), were the first to
discover the best part of our planet to live on. The rich Nile Valley of Egypt and the present seat
of the Holy City, Mecca, Arabia." (Message to the Black Man, p31)

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad also taught us that it is in Egypt that we can find remnants of one
of our great civilizations when we were gods. What did we do back then, why and how? Can we expect
to learn the truth about self in the institutions of our open enemies?

Our white enemies understand the power of a thought or an idea. They have done all that they can
to keep proper knowledge or "light" from entering the heads of their Black once slaves.
They had a two pronged approach. First, make Black people think that they have never accomplished
anything of value in Africa before they were brought into slavery. Second, knowing that it was
written that the Lion would be awoken in Judah, they worked to control the form of that awakening.

A recent article in the Final Call Newspaper highlights the continued efforts of whites to deny
that ancient Egyptians, who built the pyramids, were Black. They have gone so far as to "doctor
up" the image of King Tut to make him look like a white man instead of the Black person
represented by the broad nose and thick lips of his gold death mask.

Just to be sure that Blacks wake up from death into a nightmare, they have made the Ancient
Egyptians the enemy of the god of the Bible by equating them with the enslavers of the Children of
Israel. They have also rigorously taught that the pyramids were built as tombs for dead Pharaohs.
They know better because according to their own writings they have never found the bones or casket
of one Egyptian buried in any of the over 72 pyramids that they have broken into. The bones, mummies
and relics that you see of Ancient Egyptian Kings and Queens were mostly found in the Valley of the
Kings and Queens some 300 miles from where the pyramids were built.

However, they would have you to believe that the greatest wonder of the world, the Great Pyramid
of Giza which stands 481 feet high, built with an estimated 2.5 million stones weighing an average
of 2.5 tons taking at least 100,000 workers 30 years to build, was built as the burial tomb of King
Kufu about 4,500 years ago. As I was shaking the cobwebs off of my eyes in 1969 during my process of
resurrection which was inspired by the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I became
fascinated with the Great Pyramid. I could not imagine that a people who were so smart and ingenious
would waste all of that time and effort to build a tomb for a dead man. The white man did not know
how it was built and could not build even a smaller rendition of it today even with his modern
cranes or other technologies. So I kept digging until a word came to me one night in 1984. That word
was "water".

With this paradigm of "water" as the root of the purpose of building the pyramids I
began to go back over everything that I had read and looked at previously about the pyramids and
found that the ancient Egyptians or Kemetic (which means Black) people built the pyramids as part of
a water irrigation and purification system. I wrote about this in 1988 in a book called "Amen:
The Secret Waters of the Great Pyramid" in which I brought forward my theories. In 2003 I wrote
a follow up to this book entitled "I Will not Apologize: The Resurrection of the Master
Architect". In this new book I lay out my research since 1988 which verifies what was written
then and goes even further into the construction and use of those pyramids then and now. Yes, they
are still functioning in one of their capacities, education of the descendants of the "Master
Architects" that built them.

In my new book I document the fact that in 1930 archeologists had discovered water beneath the
Giza plateau on which the three great pyramids sit. However, they kept this finding secret until
after the publication of my book in 1988. Why?

When I give lectures on the pyramids or economic development, I ask the audience this question:
Would you want to work for a king who would have you to slave for 30 years to build a tomb for his
dead body? The answer is generally, no.

Then I would ask them: Would you build a structure that would take 30 years to build but would
provide water for irrigating 200,000 acres for 200 years? The answer is always, yes.

So now, what is the motive of white people at producing and keeping alive this lie about the
pyramids and thereby the motives of ancient Black leadership? Today, the Honorable Minister Louis
Farrakhan is asking Black America "to come out of her, so that you will not partake of her
destruction." Yet Black people cling tightly to their slave masters’ children as though they
could not live without them. Even after all of the brutality that they have and are still receiving
they do not believe that they can break away and go for self.

These poor Black people need a thorough knowledge of themselves from and ancient and modern
perspective. Ancient Blacks built civilizations for the world, invented most of the crops that we
eat, domesticated the animals that we eat and ride, developed and built great cities and nations.

Modern Blacks invented many of the items that we take for granted in a modern world such as the
elevator, electric light bulb, typewriter, flush toilet, air conditioning, door knob, automatic gear
shift, bicycle frame, cellular phone, clothes dryer, fire extinguisher, gas mask, golf tee, guitar,
hair brush, ironing board, lawn mower, lawn sprinkler, lock, mail box, mop, peanut butter, pencil
sharpener, phone transmitter, refrigerator, spark plug, traffic light, tricycle, and the typewriter.
Yet most Blacks think that white folk did all of these things, so they cling to their false god.

In the 45 years after slavery Black people began building a nation within a nation. From 1863 to
1913 Blacks patented over 1,200 inventions. They built small towns such as Mound Bayou, Miss.,
Nicodemus, Kansas, Langston, Okla., and others. Boley, Okla., had a population of 4,000 in the early
1900s. The town was governed and run by Blacks, and boasted, among other establishments, a bank,
twenty-five grocery stores, five hotels, seven restaurants, a water works, an electric plant, four
cotton gins, a bottling works, a telephone exchange and a lumber yard.

We now know about "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Okla., that was a thriving Black
business district until it was bombed from the air by the state of Oklahoma in 1921. There were a
string of lynching and a reign of terror throughout America against the rise of Black people. We
still suffer the effects of these "shock and awe" terroristic techniques which now make us
self-destruct before our open enemies have to resort to their former murderous tactics. We need to
be re-educated and re-invigorated to rise up and accomplish what we will without fear of the white
man. A Savior has come to protect us. Or did you think that God would allow this hell to exist
forever?

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

• 1. Recognize the necessity for unity and group operation (activities).

• 2. Pool your resources, physically as well as financially.

• 3. Stop wanton criticisms of everything that is black-owned and black-operated.

• 4. Keep in mind — jealousy destroys from within.

• 5. Observe the operations of the white man. He is successful. He makes no excuses for his
failures. He works hard in a collective manner. You do the same. (Message to the Black
Man in America: Elijah Muhammad)

 

This year Almighty God (Allah) has blessed us with beautiful crops of produce and fields of
wheat. Over the last 30 days we have logged 10,000 miles in travel, delivering sweet corn, squash,
watermelons, cantaloupes, bell peppers, whole wheat flour and eggplants to over 22 cities in the
south, east coast and mid-west. We were able to accomplish this because the Ministry of Agriculture
had representatives in all of these cities where these men and women are working in a
"collective manner" with each other and the believing communities in their cities.

The Ministry of Agriculture helped these people to organize themselves into food buying clubs and
they are actively buying from local farmers and wholesalers to supply fresh fruits, vegetables and
other wholesome products to their members. Therefore, when Muhammad Farms’ produce was ready to be
harvested, we had a ready market. Many of these markets were small, however by coordinating demand
we could drive our truck on a route that would drop off produce in substantial enough quantities to
make the trip economically feasible even with the extremely high price of diesel fuel.

For instance on our route to Newark, N.J. we dropped off produce in Durham, NC, Washington, DC,
Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA and finally Newark, where New York City representatives drove over
the bridge and took their watermelons back to Manhattan. One day these buying clubs will develop
into a chain of cooperatively owned supermarkets. And instead of one truck making a number of stops
and small deliveries, we will have tractor trailers loaded with 40,000 pounds of produce from our
farms and delivering all of this produce to a warehouse in one of our hub cities to be delivered to
each of the stores within that area. This is our dream and plan that will work because we are
breaking the spell of divisiveness that plagues our people like what you see in a horror movie.

Imagine a people walking around thinking that they were awake, but they always found themselves
in places that they did not plan to be in. Suppose that they thought they were walking up to a
friend’s house, but instead found themselves at the mall spending their money on designer jeans
that fit to tight and that cost too much. For 40 years we have been trying integration, when all
along we should have been separating ourselves, spiritually, morally and economically from the
children of the slave masters that put us under this spell of divisiveness. Yes, we know now about
Willie Lynch, but have we truly understood the damage done to our subconscious that prevents us from
working together to do the simple things that free and loving people do every day all over the world
as a matter of habit.

Drive in any community in America or around the world instead of the black community and you will
see people buying and selling amongst each other. You will see farms run by people of the same race
or culture and selling the produce to their communities. You will see manufacturing plants and
processing plants and warehouses and trucking companies and everything needed for the survival of a
group of people. However, when you go through black communities in America it is hard to find
anything owned and operated by black people.

Black people are some of the most talented, well trained, highly skilled and hard working slaves
on the planet. They have B.S. degrees, M.S. degrees and Ph.D.s. They practically run the places
where they work for white people, but somehow find it almost impossible to use those same skills and
brain power for self.

This is odd. This is strange. This is unnatural and this is a sin against the creature that God
created. God did not create man to be the slave or robot or "dog" for another man. I say
"dog" because I never really understood the depths of the mental and spiritual damage that
has been done to black people in America until I got and trained a dog.

At the farm we needed something to keep the deer out of our watermelon fields. We experimented
with a number of items and tricks, which the deer figured out quickly and continued to ravish our
melons. So I decided to get a small puppy and train him to love to run through my watermelon fields.
I trained him through rewarding him with extra food and pats on the head after he followed my truck
through the watermelon fields. So now, whenever I release him from his physical chain or emancipate
him, he immediately heads for the fields to do my bidding, because he knows that I would be pleased.

Now this is exactly how white people have got black people trained even though they emancipated
us from their physical chains. Through a process of punishments and rewards over a number of years
and generations, black people have been trained to do the bidding of white people. We are so well
trained that we are not happy unless we are working on one of his plantations, I mean jobs, and
spending our few dollars at one of his businesses. When a white business puts a price tag on an
item, we begin to think how to make enough money to get that item. When a black business puts a
price tag on an item, we try to figure out how to get him or her to reduce his price or just
outright give it to us. And if he does not give it to us, then we call him or her an exploiter of
the people. This is the act of a well trained "dog" for his white master not a normal
self-loving human being.

I remember when I was in the t-shirt designing and printing business and was selling my shirts
with beautiful art work on the front and poems on the back for $10. Black folk would come up to my
tent and tell me they would pay me $5 for the shirt and that they could get a t-shirt for $2.50 at
K-mart. Well I told them to go and get that blank t-shirt and throw some paint on it, but my
designer shirts were $10.

Let me give you another example of this type of sick thinking. If I offer a good product or
program to a black person, he will say in his mind: "If I get this it would benefit me. But if
I buy this from him, then he will benefit too. Therefore, I will deprive myself of the benefit of
having it, so that he will not benefit from me buying it from him." Sick!!!!

The "magic wand" of truth as taught to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and
expressed so eloquently now by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has worked to combat the evil
magic of the white slave master and his children. So we in the Nation of Islam and the Ministry of
Agriculture are breaking this spell of divisiveness and hope that we will be an example to other
chained and trained "dogs", like we used to be, so that they can break their chains and
follow us. Go to for a listing of your nearest representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and see
how you can participate in your own survival and liberation, not just "emancipation". And
thank you for your continued support of the Three Year Economic Savings Program which is the
financial backbone for Muhammad Farms which is working hard to develop a Ministry of Agriculture.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

At this time of year most farmers and gardeners, if they have done a good job of land
preparation, planting and watering, are now faced with many enemies to their crops. By far the worst
enemy is the "W-word", weed. Weeds are just plants in the wrong place with the wrong
agenda, like agents, hypocrites, spies and ignoramuses in our organizations. However, I should not
compare weeds with the human "ignoramuses", because we have learned from farming that
weeds are very intelligent and crafty. This is why farmers and gardeners are always looking for that
magic formula, "silver bullet" or "weed fairy", if you will, to take care of
these pesky, tenacious, water hungry, brutes.

My wife, Sister Anne, jokingly suggested that we should save one of our seeds that we were
planting, put it beneath our pillow, then wish for the "Weed Fairy" to come by and
overnight rid our fields of weeds. We have not tried it yet, but if any one tries this and finds
that "Weed Fairy", please let us know (smile). Otherwise we are going to wear out some
more cultivator tools and workers with hoes in their hands to fight these little and sometime big
demons. Of course we could rely on chemicals or worse, genetically modified crops plus heavy doses
of the all purpose green plant killer, Round-up.

Other than hand to hand combat with the weeds, the best way to handle them is to not let them get
started. You can do this by smothering them with plastic, cloth, paper, or straw mulches. Also if
you use raised beds and bring in new soil and compost that contain no living weed seeds, you can be
pretty sure that you won’t have weed problems at least for the first year. However, weed seeds can
be blown in by the wind or carried in by rodents and animals. Weeds can lie dormant for as long as
30 years in the soil, then on some type of clock or climatic key, wake up and cause havoc in your
garden or field.

A multi-billion dollar industry has sprung up among the chemical giants to confront and control
weeds. However, weeds still exist even under the most stringent chemical poison regimen, because of
their adaptability and survival instincts which we have observed first hand here at Muhammad Farms.

As I stated earlier, weeds can lie dormant in the soil for years waiting for the right climatic
conditions or a signal of some sort for them to germinate. One such signal is the chemicals given
off by the germinating seed that you plant and water. Soil must have water or moisture for your seed
to germinate. This same soil water is a carrier of chemical signals given off by a germinating seed.

However, your weeds also can read these chemical signals and germinate as well. It seems that
when you plant broadleaf plants such as beans, watermelons, okra or squash, the broadleaf weeds are
the first to sprout. Then, when at another time you plant grasses, such as wheat or corn, the grassy
weeds pop up.

The weeds like to get real close to your plant and seemingly mimic the appearance of your plants,
so that if you take a whack at them you may inadvertently kill your plant. This is why a farmer
plants in very straight rows. Then he can set his cultivator for a tight fit and kill anything
outside of the "drill" in which he has planted his crop. Even so there are still usually
weeds that grow right up in the drill. This is where the hoe or hand must be used to get at the
weeds.

The chemical industry has produced herbicide tailored to kill the unwanted weeds yet leave your
crop standing. However, over time these herbicides become less and less effective because the weeds
adapt and change their genetic structure to become tolerant of these chemicals. Heavier doses
applied to kill the weeds then wind up damaging or killing your plants, requiring that you switch to
another herbicide.

This constant battle between farmers and weeds has led the farmer to depend on and trust their
"Weed Fairy" called the chemical industry. This dependency has set the stage and opened up
the door for the production of genetically modified crops that can withstand high levels of
herbicide application.

In March of 2005, the University of Georgia sponsored a workshop concerning the use of other
herbicides in "Round-up Ready Cotton". The presenters were explaining to farmers that
although "Round-up Ready Cotton" was designed so that the only herbicide you needed was
"Round-up", certain weeds had taken genetic information from the cotton and developed
strains that were resistant to "Round-up". The specialists recommended that the farmers
needed to go back and use some of the other herbicides along with the "Round-up" to
destroy the new "self-modified" weeds before they get out of hand. In other words, nature
done fooled "Round-up".

Of course the producer of "Round-up", Monsanto, is probably busy at work developing a
more potent formulation of "Round-up" and new genetically modified species of cotton, corn
and soybeans that can withstand the more poisonous chemical. But there can be a more sinister side
to this escalated war on weeds. I use the word "species" instead of "variety",
because the modifications that Monsanto and other chemical/bio-tech firms are making are at the
genetic level and may incorporate DNA from a species outside of boundaries of the crop to be
modified. And because these new genetically modified "species" are patented, no one can
check to see what else may have been inserted into the DNA of that "Round-up Ready Corn"
such as a spermicide.

According to an article in the September 9, 2001 edition of "The Observer",

"Scientists have created the ultimate GM crop: contraceptive corn. Waiving fields of maize
may one day save the world from overpopulation….The pregnancy prevention plants are the handiwork
of the San Diego biotechnology company Epicyte, where researchers have discovered a rare class of
human antibodies that attack sperm."

For more information on the genetically modified crops please go to the "Farmer
Newsletter" section of www.MuhammadFarms.com and read the articles: "The Faith of
Seeds", "If I were Satan", "The Miracle of Taste", "Food: New Weapon
of Mass Destruction", "Who is Poisoning the Homeland?", "To Kill a Sperm"
and "From Maize to Poison Mess".

So when you see a weed in your garden, pluck it up by hand or get a hoe and forget about that
"Weed Fairy" that may bring into your home some unwanted side-effects like genocide.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

How do you serve a man who does not have a permanent address, has a criminal record, has minimal
skills, owes child support and trusts no one? Added to that is the fact that real wages are going
down for everyone in his generation. This scenario describes the condition of Black males within the
age group coined by sociologists as "Generation X".

Generation X is a term used to describe generations in many countries around the world born
during the 1960s and 1970s, more or less. As young adults, Generation X drew media attention in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, gaining a stereotypical reputation as apathetic, cynical, disaffected,
streetwise loners. Generation X was generally marked early on by its lack of optimism for the
future, cynicism, skepticism, alienation and distrust in traditional values and institutions.

A study done in 2007 called, "Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?"
focused on the income of males 30-39 in 2004 (those born April, 1964 – March, 1974). This study
emphasizes that in real dollars, this group (30-39) earned less (by 12%) than their fathers at the
same age in 1974, thus reversing a historic trend. The study also suggests that per year increases
in family household income has slowed (from an average of 0.9% to 0.3%), barely keeping pace with
inflation, though progressively higher each year due to more women entering the workplace
contributing to family household income.

In 2003, 68 percent of black births occurred outside marriage, much higher than for any other
race. Probably a quarter of black men aged sixteen to twenty-four—and half of those aged
twenty-five to thirty-four—are non-custodial fathers. This means that they are prime candidates
for being tracked down by child support enforcement. Statistics show that child support withholding
seems to have driven down employment among low-skilled young black men as they try to escape this
garnishment of their already dwindling pay check.

Data from the 2006 US Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, indicates that 25.2% of Blacks
between the ages of 18 and 34 changed addresses within the previous year, while only 11.2% of Blacks
35 and older changed addresses. On top of this people even change email addresses every few months.

Not only is it hard to just catch up with these people, but their habits make it hard to develop
an economic plan for them. Those of us who would try to develop a plan for these same people are
faced with another cold reality as expressed by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is his "Economic
Blueprint": "It is very hard for an economist to plan a wise program and see his plans
carried out, because the so-called American Negroes’ economics are controlled by the white
man…Do not become extravagant spenders like the rich, who own the country and everything in it. It
is sheer ignorance for us to try to compete in luxury with the owners." (p. 195, MTBM)

Economics is the study of how goods and services get produced and how they are distributed. This
problem of distribution is accentuated for a group of people, black people, who are scattered over
an area of 2,000 by 3,000 miles and individually surrounded by enemies to their economic well being.

The 1960s and 1970s were in the hay day of school integration and the flight of the Black middle
class from traditional neighborhoods to integrate white suburbia. However in the 1960s the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad warned us that …"the offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by
those who are trying to deceive the black people into believing that their 400-year-old open enemies
of freedom, justice and equality are, all of a sudden, their "friends". Furthermore, we
believe that such deception is intended to prevent black people from realizing that the time in
history has arrived for the separation from the whites of this nation."

Minister Farrakhan has compared our people to "dust" which can be scattered to the
winds with little effort. Love and a common agenda, like water can make those particles stick
together like clay which could be molded into some type of useful vessel. However, over the last 30
years jobs have moved from the inner cities, first to the suburbs and latter out of the country all
together. In many cases people had to relocate to keep a job in their profession or to get a
promotion within the company they worked for. Husbands and wives who had jobs had to make the
decision of who was going to make the career sacrifice for them to stay together as their job
opportunities moved to other cities.

We did a survey in 2007 in nine of our cities which we have targeted to establish cooperatively
owned super markets. We interviewed potential customers who were already culturally aware and ready
to participate in the preliminary stages of market development. These were people who came to the
local Muhammad’s Mosque in each of these 9 cities. In our sample of 186 respondents we found some
information that could prove a challenge for potential development centered around time and
distance. On average there were 20.7 respondents per Mosque, however for each of our Mosques these
people lived in 4 different cities. This means that no matter which of these cities we choose to put
up a store, there will be potential customers who live in three other cities. Although these other
three cities would be relatively close to each other, not many people can be expected to have the
time or money to travel to another city just to pick up their groceries.

Let me compare this to a nuclear reaction. Within the reactor the scientists put in cooling rods
to control the speed of the reaction among the radioactive atoms. If the reaction gets to hot, they
put in more rods. In the case of developing potential customers for a store, the distance of a
potential customer to your store acts as a "cooling rod" which will slow down the sales
for that store. There are two solutions to this problem: 1. move the potential customers closer to
one another, or 2. increase the potential customers already close to where you propose to set up the
store. The proper combination of willingness to buy and the potential customers’ physical
proximity to the store will insure the projects success.

Now we see how our allegorical model of "scattered dust" affects potential economic
development. We have been scattered like dry dust. Those who have like minds have been distanced
from each other and live within communities that do not share that mind. Either the carrier of that
mind must move closer to like minds or he must change the minds of the people surrounding him or his
light might go out.

Enough like minds must be brought close enough together to have the critical mass of people to
sustain businesses. Rugged individualism and running after the illusive dollar controlled by the
white man will keep us scattered. We must either move closer together to form a community or we must
completely change the mindset of the communities in which we live, if we want sustainable economic
development.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

On Saturday, January 20th a stream of out of town cars flowed into the little village of Bronwood, GA to attend our Annual
Ministry of Agriculture Conference. We say in the Nation of Islam that Allah (God) promised us
"money, good homes and friendships in all walks of life". Well in the Ministry of
Agriculture we are always in need of money. Sister Anne Muhammad through her magnificent home making
skills has turned the double wide mobile home at Muhammad Farms into a great home. Now, in the
spirit of the Millions More Movement a "friend" has loaned their recently purchased
property consisting of a large house and 12 acres of land about 4 miles from Muhammad Farms in
Bronwood for use by the Ministry of Agriculture where our conference was held.

We needed all of that large house and a good portion of their yard to accommodate the 27 cities
represented at the conference. Inside the Ministry of Agriculture House three workshops were held
starting with an overview of the Ministry of Agriculture presented by Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min. He
emphasized the portion of the ministry’s mission of producing enough food to provide at least one
meal per day to the 40 million or more Black people in America. To accomplish such a large task
would require at least 6 million acres of land. Muhammad Farms in Georgia consists of 1600 acres.
The land still owned by Black farmers is estimated at around 3 million acres. Therefore we must
still purchase another 3 million acres of land to accomplish the mission of the Ministry of
Agriculture.

Even the land still owned by Black farmers is not being productively utilized because of low
commodity prices and their exclusion from the high end produce market. To this end the Ministry of
Agriculture is promoting the development of cooperatively owned super markets to be established in
our urban centers to not only provide a market for the products from Black farmers, but get
"real" unpolluted food to our nutritionally starving people in the cities. Setting up at
least one super market in each of the cities with a large Black population may sound monumental and
farfetched except that the Ministry of Agriculture has laid out and begun to implement a simple
strategy.

The ministry has promoted the development of 14 food buying clubs across the country. The food
buying clubs start out with at least 10 members who pool a portion of their food buying money and
purchase produce from Muhammad Farms, other Black farmers in their area or their local farmers
market. This produce consists of 6 to 7 different vegetables and 3 to 4 fruits that are repackaged
and distributed among the group or club. The next step is to incorporate under the structure of a
"consumer cooperative" after they have secured at least 50 loyal and consistent members in
their association or buying club. When the number of members grows to a consistent 500 families, the
cooperative is then ready to get a permanent physical location and set up a cooperatively owned
super market.

This procedure may seem very conservative and time consuming, however it has a few advantages.
First, the money saved by the buying club members over time can be put into an investment account to
become the seed money for the purchase of a store. Secondly, the track record developed over this
time period will be documented and used in their prospectus for future investors. And thirdly and
maybe most importantly, this methodology will ensure the success of their super market when it
opens, because the cooperative knows that it will have enough of a built in customer base to keep
the "volunteers" compensated and the overhead paid.

Reports were then presented from four of the buying clubs on their strategies for success. Bro.
Ridgely X presented from Greensboro, NC, Bro. Frank Muhammad from the Raleigh/Durham, NC area, Bro.
Earl Muhammad from Macon, GA and Bro. Gerald Muhammad from Vicksburg/Jackson, Miss. Each of the
presenters emphasized that they have broadened their base to include customers outside of the
registered members of the Nation of Islam and have reached out very successfully to the Local
Organizing Committees of the Millions More Movement. They feel that this broadened customer base
will ensure their faster growth to the goal of a cooperatively owned super market.

Next on the agenda was a dynamite presentation from Sister Minister Ava Muhammad, a National
Spokesperson for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, on "Making the home safe". The
audience was shocked to know that the same chemical companies that produced weapons in World War II
got together after the war and developed a strategy to use their chemical production capacity and
excess chemicals for the production of home cleaning products. Minister Ava informed the group that
the FDA has publicly admitted that of the almost 75,000 chemicals registered with them, less than
20% have been tested for toxicity. Women were the targets for these knew home cleaning products and
soaps through a mass advertising campaign that included the development of afternoon "soap
operas". Now our households are hooked on "poisons" that are not even necessary to
clean our clothes, homes and bodies. Minster Ava emphasized the need for each of us, especially our
sisters, to become "scientists" so that we can protect our families from the poisons of
wicked and greedy so-called scientists.

The conference then moved to the backyard for a real-time demonstration of how to set up your
"urban garden" using three different strategies. Bro. Earl Muhammad demonstrated how to
set up a raised bed garden along with a simple irrigation system. Bro. Frank Muhammad demonstrated
how to set up your porch or window garden using 4 different sized containers. And Bro. Gerald
Muhammad demonstrated how to set up a miniature greenhouse that would expand your growing season,
especially for those living in the colder northern climates. The demonstrators emphasized the need
for good record keeping to document the progress of their garden and to record any anomalies that
would be helpful planning and operating their garden for the next season. The Ministry of
Agriculture has produced a "Muhammad Farms Calendar" for 2007 that includes pictures of
Muhammad Farms, Black history dates, crop harvesting dates and space for the recording of your
garden activities on a day to day basis.

These calendars will be available during the Saviours’ Day Weekend in Detroit, Mich. in February
of 2007 along with a DVD of the garden demonstrations and the workshop on the food buying clubs.
Also included on the DVDs will be a tour of Muhammad Farms which the caravan of conference
participants took. On this tour the participants were given a comparison of techniques demonstrated
for their gardens and techniques used on our 1600 acre or 1300 football fields operation.

The conference was capped off by a fine dinner from the "Muhammad Farms Kitchen"
prepared by Sister Anne Muhammad and Sister Brenda X using some of the fall produce from Muhammad
Farms. The participants applauded the workshops, the demonstrations, the tour and the food.

Pictures from Conference click Here